Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko is heaping public praise on Ukrainian singer Jamala, after her surprise win Saturday over a Russian entry in the wildly popular Eurovision song contest.
Poroshenko, writing on Twitter, said he personally congratulated the 33-year-old performer, whose winning song, “1944,” lamented the Soviet wartime deportation of ethnic Tatars from the Crimean peninsula.
“YES!!! An unbelievable performance and victory,” he tweeted in Ukrainian. “A heartfelt thank you from all of Ukraine, Jamala!
“The truth, as always, has prevailed,” Poroshenko added in a subsequent tweet.
Many analysts interpreted the performance as a swipe at present-day Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and then supported a pro-Russian rebellion that has claimed more than 9,000 lives in eastern Ukraine.
In Moscow Sunday, Russian officials scoffed at the win. Lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev used Twitter to insist that Moscow’s entry in the contest was robbed, and that geopolitics had, in his words, “gained the upper hand.” Kosachev, a leading member of Russia’s Upper House of Parliament, also described the win as further threatening a peace process with Kyiv aimed at ending the conflict.
Watch related video by RFE/RL:
Another member of Russia’s Upper House, Franz Klintzevich, said his country should boycott next year’s contest, which is scheduled to be held in Ukraine. In comments to the Ria Novosti news agency, he said Ukrainian officials likely will use their 2017 status as host to “advance their political agenda.”
Ukraine last week held its annual Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, honoring its World War II dead. The mourning encompassed those killed in Soviet purges of ethnic Tatars, a Turkic people who began settling in and near Crimea in the 10th century.
Singer Jamala, whose full name is Susana Jamaladinova, is herself of Crimean Tatar descent. Her performance was broadcast live in Europe, China, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Famous past Eurovision winners include the 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, Canadian singer Celine Dion in 1988, and the Russian duo Tatu in 2003.
…
